Fisher at fault, but he didn’t act alone
Just blame Jimbo.
It’s all his fault. Everything bad that has happened at FSU and in Tallahassee during the past two years — the losing and lackluster seasons, the academic deficiencies, the disciplinary issues, the athletic department’s debt, the plunging seasonticket sales, Willie Taggart’s inept offense, the tepid response to the ACC Network, the corruption charges against former Tallahasssee Mayor Andrew Gillum and the collateral damage from Hurricane Michael — is all Jimbo Fisher’s doing.
At least that’s the narrative coming out of Tallahassee in the wake of a scathing Bleacher Report article recently in which Florida State’s administration, for the first time, publicly threw Jimbo under the bus. Even though I believe the criticism of Jimbo is warranted, I think it should come with an asterisk:
*Florida State’s administration is incredibly hypocritical and selfserving.
“In this business, you learn to have tough skin,” Texas A&M’s Fisher said when I asked him at SEC media days Tuesday about the criticism he received in the Bleacher Report article from new FSU athletics director Dave Coburn.
“You learn the circumstances of everything that happens and how it happens — that’s part of this business. People are going to say and write things, and you know what goes on and you move on.
“I have nothing but respect for my time at Florida State. It is a phenomenal place. … I had a great time. We had great success. I wish them nothing but the best. They’ll
be successful I know. That’s a great program.”
Fisher is a smart man and is taking the high road now because deep down he knows he took the low road out of Tallahassee and left the Seminoles at their most rock-bottom point of the modern era. Last season — the first under Taggart — the Seminoles finished 5-7 and ended a national-best streak of 36 consecutive years of going to a bowl game.
“We were 5-6 in Jimbo’s last season when he pulled the ripcord,” Coburn told Bleacher Report, referring to a decision late in Fisher’s final season to reschedule a game against LouisianaMonroe that had previously been canceled because of Hurricane Irma.
“If we didn’t buy that hurricane makeup game, the bowl streak would’ve ended then.”
True enough.
Even though Jimbo is obviously a tremendous coach who won a lot of games and a national championship at FSU, it’s undeniable he left Taggart a program lacking in talent and discipline. I don’t have an issue with FSU’s administration blaming Fisher for the crumbling program Taggart inherited, but I do have a problem with FSU’s administration failing to recognize its own shortcomings.
I’ve written many times that Jimbo left FSU in a state of disarray and I have compared his sudden exit in Tallahassee to Urban Meyer’s emergency evacuation from Gainesville. When Jimbo saw his program coming apart, he got out while the getting was good. As it turned out, he made an astute career move: If he had stayed at FSU for another mediocre or losing season, he probably doesn’t get the humongous $75 million contract offer Texas A&M extended.
And like Meyer in Gainesville, Fisher is now persona non grata in Tallahassee. Just as Gator fans now bemoan the renegade program Meyer ran at UF, the perception of Jimbo has changed dramatically among FSU fans since he left a Christmas tree on the curb and bolted Tallahassee.
This is what always irks me about college football fans — and administrators. They never complain when their coach is winning national championships; they only complain when their coach bails out on them.
For instance, in the lengthy Bleacher Report article, FSU’s administration lamented the academic deficiencies and discipline issues Jimbo had at FSU. The article pointed out that FSU’s Academic Progress Report (APR) was dead last among Power Five programs last year and dangerously close to the line where the NCAA could take punitive action.
A former FSU assistant coach under Fisher told Bleacher Report that by the end of Fisher’s reign, coaches were being given one mandate: “Keep the players eligible.” And Coburn even admitted, yes, “It appears that was the case. … The difference now is Willie (Taggart) isn’t comfortable with just keeping players eligible. He not only wants them to succeed, he wants them to succeed at a high level academically.”
Questions for Coburn: Where was FSU’s administration when Jimbo was “just trying to keep players eligible?” Doesn’t the athletic department have an entire army of staff members in their “Student Athlete Academic Services” wing in charge of monitoring the academic progress of football players? Where were these people when the football APR was crashing and burning? Where was former AD Stan Wilcox? Where was the provost of the university?
I’ll ask Coburn the same questions about the other major revelation uncovered by Bleacher Report, which chronicled Jimbo’s habitual enabling of Jameis Winston and how it created a culture of entitlement among FSU’s football program.
Again, where was FSU’s administration during this whole time? Where were Wilcox and other university officials when Winston was accused of sexual battery by former FSU student Erica Kinsman? Why did the school wait until after Winston led the Seminoles to a national championship before beginning its federally mandated Title IX investigation into the rape allegations even though the accusations became public months earlier? And do you really think it’s coincidence that FSU eventually paid Kinsman nearly a million dollars to settle a lawsuit that claimed the school hindered and delayed its Title IX investigation just so Winston could continue to play football?
Yes, Jimbo Fisher certainly deserves much of the blame for coddling Jameis Winston, but FSU’s administration deserves much of the blame for coddling Jimbo Fisher.
Too many university administrators just don’t understand that when you sell your soul for winning, you actually end up losing.
Just ask Willie Taggart.